Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Equipment => Bats => Topic started by: brokenbat on July 20, 2020, 04:12:41 AM
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I have never posted a negative review before, as I generally prefer to give people the benefit of doubt. But my experience ordering from Chase was just brutal, and needs to be shared.
I ordered a *15mm shorter blade* bat, and specifically asked the bat maker to ensure that it’s a *full width bat (108mm)*. What I received, was a regular length bat (not shorter blade), which was also substantially narrower than 108mm. The pictures here prove this - the specs were obviously wrong. I proved this using my gm Stokes player edition bats for comparison - expecting Chase to realize the error and work towards a solution.
Boy was I wrong - the bat maker turned super defensive and insisted that the *stokes* bat is harrow length! He Even claimed to have “checked with GM”, which was such an audacious lie (I checked with GM myself and sent him proof - also attached here)..I finally told him to call itsjustcricket since I purchased one of the Stokes bats from them, and they would easily be able to verify everything. Chase refused to do that as well - and kept telling me that the GM Stokes player edition is a shorter blade bat and that my pictures prove nothing (I have attached a small sample of our interaction).
Mistakes happen, and most manufacturers would work to rectify them. Chase however, refused to admit the error (despite overwhelming evidence) and chose instead to cast doubt on other manufacturers (GM).
They even reneged on their initial offer to pay for return shipping - I ended up incurring that cost myself, and to make matters worse, they did not even refund the original shipping cost.
Absolutely horrendous customer service, and borderline sketchy business ethics - I hope others have had better experiences.
All the pics are here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CC2Y-gyB75q/?igshid=gr8iop6qbzem (https://www.instagram.com/p/CC2Y-gyB75q/?igshid=gr8iop6qbzem)
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Thanks for sharing this.
For those of us, who are buying bats from overseas, shipping bats back-and-forth is an incredibly inconvenient aspect of bat buying process. It is good to know which vendors are worth doing business with.
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I’m surprised, whenever I’ve dealt with chase they’ve been sound more than happy to help. Was the bat sent overseas or was it domestic
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Am I missing something..
The Diamond Ben stokes edition is L540 blade.. so is Shorter.
https://www.sixsixescricket.co.uk/product/gm-diamond-l540-dxm-senior/ (https://www.sixsixescricket.co.uk/product/gm-diamond-l540-dxm-senior/)
It even shows it on the GM website:
https://www.playwiththebest.com/cricket/bats/player-edition.html (https://www.playwiththebest.com/cricket/bats/player-edition.html)
I'm not defending anyones behaviour but are you 100% sure you are correct.... Measure your blade.. is it 540 or 555..If its 540 then chase made you want you asked for in terms of blade length.
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Am I missing something..
The Diamond Ben stokes edition is L540 blade.. so is Shorter.
https://www.sixsixescricket.co.uk/product/gm-diamond-l540-dxm-senior/ (https://www.sixsixescricket.co.uk/product/gm-diamond-l540-dxm-senior/)
It even shows it on the GM website:
https://www.playwiththebest.com/cricket/bats/player-edition.html (https://www.playwiththebest.com/cricket/bats/player-edition.html)
I'm not defending anyones behaviour but are you 100% sure you are correct.... Measure your blade.. is it 540 or 555..If its 540 then chase made you want you asked for in terms of blade length.
It's a bit confusing as the diamond range itself is 540mm in length, but the actual Ben Stokes player edition is 555mm.
The GM website states it is the 555mm length under the additional info.
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Am I missing something..
The Diamond Ben stokes edition is L540 blade.. so is Shorter.
https://www.sixsixescricket.co.uk/product/gm-diamond-l540-dxm-senior/ (https://www.sixsixescricket.co.uk/product/gm-diamond-l540-dxm-senior/)
It even shows it on the GM website:
https://www.playwiththebest.com/cricket/bats/player-edition.html (https://www.playwiththebest.com/cricket/bats/player-edition.html)
I'm not defending anyones behaviour but are you 100% sure you are correct.... Measure your blade.. is it 540 or 555..If its 540 then chase made you want you asked for in terms of blade length.
I have the Player Edition cricket bay which is L555 (full length). Confirmed with GM, as well as itsjustcricket that I was right on this. I even asked Chase to call up GM and itsjustcricket to verify everything- he simply refused to do that.
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https://www.playwiththebest.com/ben-stokes-phase-ii-player-edition-dxm.html (https://www.playwiththebest.com/ben-stokes-phase-ii-player-edition-dxm.html)
Additional Information on here says it is a 555mm blade.
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It's a bit confusing as the diamond range itself is 540mm in length, but the actual Ben Stokes player edition is 555mm.
The GM website states it is the 555mm length under the additional info.
Yep.. got it now.
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Surely a picture of a tape measure against the Chase bat (and the GM if you like) answers everything?
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I have the Player Edition cricket bay which is L555 (full length). Confirmed with GM, as well as itsjustcricket that I was right on this. I even asked Chase to call up GM and itsjustcricket to verify everything- he simply refused to do that.
Yep, just seen that in the additional information. I stand corrected.
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I’m surprised, whenever I’ve dealt with chase they’ve been sound more than happy to help. Was the bat sent overseas or was it domestic
I was surprised and stunned myself. To make matters even worse, when I sent the bats back, he initially said he needs to charge me GBP 80 extra for “re-machining” the bats. He eventually backed off. But it shows how his first instinct was to extract more money out of the situation instead of making things right. As I said before - I have never posted a negative review before, but this experience was just too excruciating to ignore.
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And the other frustrating thing was width of the bat. When I was placing the order he ASSURED me that he would never resort to the tactic of making a narrower blade to save weight and that the bats would be full 108mm in width. The bats I got were much narrower- when I mentioned this to him he went on the defensive claiming that he makes narrow bats for pros and they don’t complain.... well then why give me false assurances when I placed the order???
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I'm confused - is the issue the length or the
width! Or both?
A shame because I really like Chase
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Everyone can have a bad day(s) and you never know what might be going on behind the scenes. Not an an excuse - business is business after all.
Seems like you have done your best to state your case and get things resolved. Sounds like best solution might be to ask for a full refund (product not as described) and take your business elsewhere.
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This is weird as Dan was so easy TK deal with when I ordered a custom R1 as well as the few R1 bats I purchased all specs meet
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Everyone can have a bad day(s) and you never know what might be going on behind the scenes. Not an an excuse - business is business after all.
Seems like you have done your best to state your case and get things resolved. Sounds like best solution might be to ask for a full refund (product not as described) and take your business elsewhere.
Yes, I agree. As I said earlier, mistakes are part of the game - its how you address them that matters. Other bat makers have sent wrong specs in the past, but have been quick to make amends... these guys refused to even acknowledge that something was off, and were so combative. The red flags for me were: Dan's refusal to call GM (I sent him a copy of my correspondence with GM that proved what I was saying); his refusal to call IJC (I had bought the Stokes player edition from Paul, and I knew that Dan and Paul knew each other well); and his attempt to charge me 80 GBP for "Re-machining". It was honestly a stunning experience - I hope it was just a bad day in the office for them, and not reflective of how they normally do business.
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I'm confused - is the issue the length or the
width! Or both?
A shame because I really like Chase
Both, along with how he responded so aggressively to any hint that specs were off. A real shame, because I was so excited to finally try Chase. I think they are best for locals, who can actually go in and try out specific bats - when it comes to bespoke orders, B3 is unbeatable in terms of service and quality.
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Yes, I agree. As I said earlier, mistakes are part of the game - its how you address them that matters. Other bat makers have sent wrong specs in the past, but have been quick to make amends... these guys refused to even acknowledge that something was off, and were so combative. The red flags for me were: Dan's refusal to call GM (I sent him a copy of my correspondence with GM that proved what I was saying); his refusal to call IJC (I had bought the Stokes player edition from Paul, and I knew that Dan and Paul knew each other well); and his attempt to charge me 80 GBP for "Re-machining". It was honestly a stunning experience - I hope it was just a bad day in the office for them, and not reflective of how they normally do business.
Sadly in my experience Dan is very combative and standoffish, I have seen multiple examples of this now both as a customer and looking at other people’s experience.
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That's a shame, I get stuff from Chase quite regularly and always find him very straightforward to deal with - certainly easier than a lot of competitors... As mentioned earlier, am I missing something or have you actually measured the length of the bat? Wouldn't that be a lot easier than trying to persuade someone to ring up GM to ask how long a totally unrelated stick is?
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That's a shame, I get stuff from Chase quite regularly and always find him very straightforward to deal with - certainly easier than a lot of competitors... As mentioned earlier, am I missing something or have you actually measured the length of the bat? Wouldn't that be a lot easier than trying to persuade someone to ring up GM to ask how long a totally unrelated stick is?
Yes measured and also compared with all the other SH bats I have. I also offered him an easy out - call Paul at IJC (who I purchased the Stokes player edition from). I know the two know each other - it would have been a very easy conversation. Even sent him screenshots of Paul confirming the specs, which he just ignored.
Dan seems like the type of guy who’s easy to get along with as long as you don’t ever question anything he says/does.
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Seems like not the only batmaker who's having a grumpy time at the moment. See the latest Facebook Post from Aldred about customers who ask for pictures of bats. Doesn't encourage me to buy there.
But, I reckon lots of makers must be almost out of business this year after lockdown, so they may not be at their calmest or most polite right now....
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Surely that’s even more reason to be accommodating to a customers requests!
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Surely that’s even more reason to be accommodating to a customers requests!
Yes, agreed
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Perhaps you antagonised him by trying to bring other people in on this when simply you could have measured the bat and said it wasn't the specs requested. Why would that not have sufficed? By telling him to get in touch with all and sundry you may have wound him up.
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Perhaps you antagonised him by trying to bring other people in on this when simply you could have measured the bat and said it wasn't the specs requested. Why would that not have sufficed? By telling him to get in touch with all and sundry you may have wound him up.
far from it. I measured it - he didn't believe me. then i compared with all the other SH bats i have - he still didn't believe me. it was only as a last resort that I asked him to verify with retailers or other bat manufacturers that their bats are full length. I have 20+ bats, so it was very, very easy to demonstrate that the specs were off - I figured using one of the most popular full length bats out there (the stokes player edition) would suffice.
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Perhaps you antagonised him by trying to bring other people in on this when simply you could have measured the bat and said it wasn't the specs requested. Why would that not have sufficed? By telling him to get in touch with all and sundry you may have wound him up.
I don't think he did this at all. @brokenbat Was very professional about it.
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I personally think you dealt with it as best you can. I hope chase have rectified the problem
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My opinion could and would be biased, yes, I haven't deal with Chase but I know @brokenbat pretty well to know how he must have been one of the most patient customer out there.
A loss for Chase.
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far from it. I measured it - he didn't believe me. then i compared with all the other SH bats i have - he still didn't believe me. it was only as a last resort that I asked him to verify with retailers or other bat manufacturers that their bats are full length. I have 20+ bats, so it was very, very easy to demonstrate that the specs were off - I figured using one of the most popular full length bats out there (the stokes player edition) would suffice.
Absolutely fair enough as a last resort after what you had already done
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I don’t feel as though the customer has done anything wrong here.
He asked for something specific, it arrived differently, he calmly tried to explain and gave reference to show his evidence something wasn’t right and the bat maker through his toys out the pram.
I had a very similar experience with an ex forum sponsor renowned for not being able to make a bat to dead weight and make it to what he thought was the pickup weight.
If you buy something in good faith you expect to receive it, I don’t go to Asda and buy a packet of rice and get cous cous?
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The bat disappeared within 48 hours of returning to a very happy home I hear.
Having known Dan for a long time I can say he is a top bloke who makes top bat's and I suspect something has got lost on the passages of coraspondance
I do believe @brokenbat he has tried to facetime you a number of times which you have not picked up?
Not to open up a topic but some of the comments about Dan have been made and as Somebody I have known, he a top bloke a busy bloke who doesn't always have time to chat all things if he had a million repairs to do but a busy honest chap.
He did show me the 4 he made for a Pakistan player for the world Cup very nice indeed I will try to get a few pictures of.
Oh it good to be back!!!!
Oh sorry to edit I also know he takes his customer service and buying experience very seriously as word of mouth is important in the small strange industry as bat making.
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I do believe @brokenbat he has tried to facetime you a number of times which you have not picked up?
Yes, after I posted my review, he has tried to FaceTime me. I have told him that given my experience, I prefer to have a record of my interactions with him, and that he is more than welcome to send me a message and we can go from there. I have said this multiple times, and he inexplicably refuses to send me whatever he wants to say via a written message. Its a bit odd tbh, but honestly, I have moved on, and I wish him well.
On a more important note, good to hear from you Dave @procricket again ! Hope you've been well, and hope you're back online for good :)
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It is one thing to drop by someone's workshop or store and communicate with them and another to order a bat online/via email/over phone. Not all bat makers can provide the same customer service experience and it seems like Chase are one of them.
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On cue as if I saw what was coming.
Well many many people are happy with Chase and the experience I guess it comes down to not being able to please everybody but I learnt that along time ago via my connections with B3.
Customer had issue customer got refund.
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On cue as if I saw what was coming.
Well many many people are happy with Chase and the experience I guess it comes down to not being able to please everybody but I learnt that along time ago via my connections with B3.
Mate you know how often I order from b3. I absolutely love the service the likes of b3 provide. If Dan’s customer service was even 5 percent of what b3 offer, I would have no complaints. This is the first negative review I have ever posted - took a lot to get me to that point.
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M Point was not about B3 or Chase my point was you can not please everybody all of the time but off you go again.
Having been close to both I can say both do very well in there fields both I have friends at both.
I could open a right can of worms about certain people and companies all over the place but don't like the the one company who made a error asking 100 pound more for a cleft than the same cleft they offered his mate same picture.
I guess we will have to disagree I rate chase I rate Dan as a person and as a business man and family man.
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M Point was not about B3 or Chase my point was you can not please everybody all of the time but off you go again.
Having been close to both I can say both do very well in there fields both I have friends at both.
Perhaps you having friends at Chase has clouded your judgement here. Seems to me, and most people I would assume, that Chase, Dan whatever you want to call him is in the wrong here. Certainly initially
I picked up a Chase from someone on this forum and its a great bat, cut a 6 on Saturday. Would definitely buy one again. Just perhaps not go direct after reading this case
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I imagine Dan probably went into Serious Cricket and grabbed a Diamond, and didn't think to consider that there would be a difference in blade length across grades (because why would there be?)
Incidentally the Serious Cricket website also has the blade length wrong.
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M Point was not about B3 or Chase my point was you can not please everybody all of the time but off you go again.
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I guess we will have to disagree I rate chase I rate Dan as a person and as a business man and family man.
This is not personal; this is about a business transaction which was handled poorly by the business.
In today's reality, this is the world we live in. A bad review has merit and can't be discounted simply because: a.) there are opposing views based on personal/professional experiences; b.) So-and-so is a good person.
Why so defensive? Customer had a bad experience and shared it with the world. Thanks for sharing it, Mr. Customer!
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On cue as if I saw what was coming. [/b]
Well many many people are happy with Chase and the experience I guess it comes down to not being able to please everybody but I learnt that along time ago via my connections with B3.
That's a smug statement. You should put yourself in a buyer's shoes who's ordering a bat from 3000 miles away. I have ordered bats from a distance. Ordering kit from afar can be a miserable experience.
And, yes. If you are local, you have it easy.
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That's a smug statement. You should put yourself in a buyer's shoes who's ordering a bat from 3000 miles away. I have ordered bats from a distance. Ordering kit from afar can be a miserable experience.
And, yes. If you are local, you have it easy.
Not smug at all i just predicted you would pile in.
Ref the other point about being defensive dam right i'm being defensive in his post on here and instagram he did mention "Shoddy business ethics" that to me is a bit personal he done well to last this long it sounds in the cricketing world selling all the bats he does do.
It no wonder the cricket industry is not overly keen on this forum which is a big shame and the forum is getting less and less popular.
Maybe @brokenbat if Dan does try to facetime you maybe answer i don't see what you can lose out on pal
Of course i understand how hard it to pick a bat if your not in the country it always going to be a struggle to match your exact mm size for weight if your a handmaker of bats i know another company who struggled even with a CNC....
Customers always right i guess all i have to say on this.
Does anybody post pictures of bats been away 18 or so months need some good picture of bats
In the market for some new bats
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Not smug at all i just predicted you would pile in.
Ref the other point about being defensive dam right i'm being defensive in his post on here and instagram he did mention "Shoddy business ethics" that to me is a bit personal he done well to last this long it sounds in the cricketing world selling all the bats he does do.
It no wonder the cricket industry is not overly keen on this forum which is a big shame and the forum is getting less and less popular.
Maybe @brokenbat if Dan does try to facetime you maybe answer i don't see what you can lose out on pal
Of course i understand how hard it to pick a bat if your not in the country it always going to be a struggle to match your exact mm size for weight if your a handmaker of bats i know another company who struggled even with a CNC....
Customers always right i guess all i have to say on this.
Does anybody post pictures of bats been away 18 or so months need some good picture of bats
Since this topic has been revived..here is a recap of why I was put off by the experience:
1. The bats I got were clearly the wrong specs - I have 20+ bats, and so it was very easy to prove this.
2. Upon seeing photos that clearly illustrated that a mistake had been made in the specs, Dan dismissed the evidence and said that the OTHER bats in the pictures I sent him were the wrong specs, not his. He was very standoffish and simply chose to ignore the evidence. I have attached some screenshots of my conversations with him in my original post that show this very clearly.
3. One of the specs that was off, was the bat width. When I had ordered, he assured me that they would be "full 108mm wide", and we had explicitly agreed on this. After I told him that the bat was much narrower, he went on the defensive claiming that he makes narrow bats for pros and they don't complain.... well then why give me false assurances when I placed the order? I would much rather have a bat maker tell me that what I am asking for is not doable, instead of accepting my order, and trying to jam through incorrect specs, and then scold the customer for pointing it out
4. What really set me off, was that once he had the bats back, he sent me a message saying that he would need to charge me an EXTRA GBP 40 PER BAT, as he needs to "re-machine" them before they can be re-sold. Not only was this NEVER mentioned before I shipped them back, it was also a totally bogus claim - why would you make fairly standard looking bats, smaller before trying to re-sell them? I am glad you mentioned that he re-sold them within 48 hours - shows how bogus the "I need to charge you 40 GBP per bat to re-spec them" claim was.
After a lot of back and forth, and some very strong pushback from me, he backed of this "extra charge" idea, but it was clear, that far from trying to make things right, his first instincts were still to extract whatever he could from the customer.
5. Mistakes happen, and its not a big deal - its how you deal with them. This was an excruciating experience, that dragged on and on and on, and hence why I felt compelled to write a negative review for the first time in my 12 year "career" of hoarding cricket gear.
I have nothing personal against them (I am sure Dan is a great bloke, and great family man, as you say), and lots of people are happy with their bats - I just think people outside the UK need to be very careful about ordering from him, as his customer service (for us outside the UK) is well below that of his competitors.
If that changes, then I'll be very happy for him, and for the larger cricket fraternity. But I couldn't let someone else go through the same experience without fair warning.
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Not smug at all i just predicted you would pile in.
Ref the other point about being defensive dam right i'm being defensive in his post on here and instagram he did mention "Shoddy business ethics" that to me is a bit personal he done well to last this long it sounds in the cricketing world selling all the bats he does do.
It no wonder the cricket industry is not overly keen on this forum which is a big shame and the forum is getting less and less popular.
Maybe @brokenbat if Dan does try to facetime you maybe answer i don't see what you can lose out on pal
Of course i understand how hard it to pick a bat if your not in the country it always going to be a struggle to match your exact mm size for weight if your a handmaker of bats i know another company who struggled even with a CNC....
Customers always right i guess all i have to say on this.
Does anybody post pictures of bats been away 18 or so months need some good picture of bats
In the market for some new bats
Dave mate, it’s pretty hard to defend the indefensible.
It’s a very very very simple issue. Bat ordered to specs - bat arrives completely wrong - Dan at best is unhelpful, at worst a complete charlatan - customer writes negative review.
Yes there might be mitigation, yes he might be a great guy, yes he might be a family man (not that it’s relevant), but ultimately, he got it horribly wrong in this case. In this instance the forum has done nothing wrong and if Dan doesn’t like being called out for ‘shoddy business ethics’ then perhaps don’t act in such a way that would give people scope to do so.
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OK the customer is always right.
Can't argue with that.
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I imagine Dan probably went into Serious Cricket and grabbed a Diamond, and didn't think to consider that there would be a difference in blade length across grades (because why would there be?)
Incidentally the Serious Cricket website also has the blade length wrong.
So does this website too say the players Ben stokes players is shorter blade.
Getting me confused as I'm looking for a short blade sh
https://www.mrcrickethockey.com/product/diamond-ben-stokes-players-edition-cricket-bat-2019/ (https://www.mrcrickethockey.com/product/diamond-ben-stokes-players-edition-cricket-bat-2019/)
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OK. The reality now is that this is just going to get more argumentative.
The bat is with a happy customer, I assume you got your cash back.
In truth I am not a big fan of dirty laundry being washed in public and I have also found that speaking to people is better than trying to have everything in writing when dealing with a contentious issue.
I am sorry you had a bad experience with your purchase, it happens pretty rarely, fortunately.